My youngest daughter is getting married in eleven days:
How time flies. It seems like she was just a little girl running around the playground at St. Margaret School…
But no… In what seems like a blink of an eye, she is now all grown up with a career as a dental hygienist, a house of her own, and a man to whom she will vow to spend the rest of her life next Saturday.
Joy abounds when there’s a wedding in the family:
We are so excited for Katie and Karl and their new life together as husband and wife.
The plans and preparations are almost final…
The wedding shower was a huge success:
Delicious cupcakes for dessert and colorful African violets as favors.
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And the bachelorette evening was great fun:
Katie even invited her proud Mom and her Grandma to attend the dinner at Roy’s Hawaiian Fusion near the Inner Harbor.
After-dinner fun with the wedding party: Katie with sisters Tracy (left), Meighan, and brother Joseph.
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What’s left now?
Just a few more tasks are left on our to-do list:
Finalize the number for the caterers, pick up the wedding gown from being steamed, attend the rehearsal and dinner next Thursday, and order the food for the girls in the wedding party to enjoy the night before the Big Day.
And worry… Worry?
What’s there to worry about?
Every mother of the bride can relate to the worry that everything will go perfectly for her little girl-turned-bride.
Some things we can’t control, of course… Like the weather.
And tomorrow will be the first day that Katie’s wedding date is included in the ten-day weather forecast.
Our fingers are crossed for good luck:
The statue of the Blessed Mother has been in my bedroom window facing outside for the past two weeks. She was there for the month before the 2011 wedding of my older daughter Meighan too.
Have you not heard about this old Italian Catholic tradition?
Asking for the Blessed Mother to intercede for us for beautiful weather for our special occasion?
I just recently read about the Irish doing the similar practice of placing the Infant of Prague statue in their windows to hold off the frequent showers in their native land. The BBC wrote about this practice back in 2013 in an article entitled “Religious statue believed to guarantee good weather.”
And what about rain on the wedding day?
Blogger Cissy Romano, wrote one year ago today that “rain on your wedding day can bring so many blessings to you and your significant other. It is raining, once again, on my 7th wedding anniversary. I feel just as blessed today as I did 7 years ago. Our knot is strong because it started off drenched with rain.”
Photo: Don’t rain on my parade
Cissy extolled rain on the wedding day for a variety of reasons including that it symbolizes a “fresh start:”
“Most religions believe that rain is symbolic for a new beginning. I am Roman Catholic. I baptized all three of my munchkins shortly after birth. The Holy Water was used to cleanse my little ones at baptism for their fresh start in the Catholic Faith. Also, if you have ever lived in a place where blooming trees and bushes paint the sides of streets and fronts of houses every spring, you also know how welcome rain is to wash away all of the pollen that is making you and the rest of your house ill from allergies. Rain washes away the impurities and allows for the air you breathe to be fresh.
God bless you rain.”
Katie’s wedding day will be perfect:
Whether the sun shines brightly or it rains on April 25, we know that the day will be perfect because of the two wonderful persons who will be united as husband and wife that day.
Our joy will know no bounds.
But the Blessed Mother will stay in our bedroom window and we will continue to pray for fine weather:
All powerful and ever living God, we find security in Your forgiveness.
Give us fine weather we pray,
so that we may rejoice in Your gifts of kindness
and use them always for Your glory and our good.
Amen.
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Checking out the blossoms at the venue:
Katie and Karl on a recent visit to the Liriodendron in Bel Air